According to a report in Travel Weekly, the U.S. group, Airlines for America, found the measure to be a useless redundancy that would result in extra expenses (not to mention aggravation and complaints) on both the parts of airlines and the passengers they carried. Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, said members “reject the recent carry-on size initiative put forth by IATA because it is unnecessary and flies in the face of the actions the U.S. carriers are taking to invest in the customer experience — roughly $1.2 billion a month — including larger overhead bins.

“Our members already have guidelines in place on what size bags they can accommodate, making this action unnecessary. We agree with IATA’s action to reassess this initiative and take into account stakeholders’ views and recognize work already underway to improve baggage facilitation.”

When IATA first proposed the change, it noted that nine major international airlines were planning to use the guidelines, including Avianca, Azul, Caribbean Airlines, Cathay Pacific, China Eastern, China Southern, Emirates, Lufthansa and Qatar.

IATA, for its part, is not admitting defeat, but instead saying it will hold its recommendation pending further study and to take the time “to further engage program participants, the rest of our members, and other key stakeholders.”

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